KOHIMA: The Chief Electoral Officer of Nagaland has announced the final list of candidates for the upcoming legislative assembly elections in the state. A total of 1316064 voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in Nagaland on February 27.
V Shashank Shekhar, the Chief Electoral Officer mentioned that a total of 183 candidates with affiliations to different political parties across 59 constituencies of the Nagaland Assembly. The Nagaland assembly has a total of 60 seats and one of them won uncontested.
The declarations about the elections came on January 31. February 7 was the last date for accepting nominations from the candidate while the documents were verified on February 8. February 10 was the last date for the withdrawal of nominations by the candidates.
The Chief Electoral Officer announced that a total of 225 nominations were received by the authorities. Out of them, 25 nominations were found to be invalid during scrutiny. An additional 16 candidates took back their nominations till the end of Friday. Also Kazheto Kinimi, the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate from the Akuluto assembly constituency of the Zunheboto district was declared the winner as there was no other candidate for the seat.
The Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party, which had a majority in the previous assembly elections has decided to contest for 40 seats in the state. Bharatiya Janata Party has issued a list of candidates for 20 seats while Congress will be contesting in 23 constituencies. The Nagaland People's Front will be contesting in 22 constituencies.
The Lok Janshakti Party's Ram Vilas Paswan wing will contest in 15 seats, the National People's Party and the Nationalist Congress party have also launched candidates for twelve seats each. Republican Party of India (Athawale) has launched 9 candidates, Janata Dal (United) on 7 and Rashtriya Janata Dal on 3. The Communist Party of India and the Rising People's Party have also given one candidate each.
A total of 19 independent candidates will also be contesting in the Nagaland elections.
Tening in the Peren District, Sanis in Wokha and Tehok in Mon are the constituencies with the highest of 6 candidates. Only four women appear in the list of candidates in the state. They are Hekhani Jakhalu for NDPP in the Dimapur-III seat, Rosy Thompson for Congress in the Tening seat, Salhoutuonuo for NDPP in the Western Angami seat and Er Kahuli Sema for BJP in the Atoizu seat.
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